Modern History Sourcebook:
Commissioner Lin:
Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839

Lin, high imperial commissioner, a president of the Board of War, viceroy of the two
Keäng provinces, &c., Tang, a president of the Board of War, viceroy of the two Kwang
provinces, &c., and E., a vice-president of the Board of War, lieut.-governor of
Kwangtung, &c., hereby conjointly address this public dispatch to the queen of England
for the purpose of giving her clear and distinct information (on the state of affairs)
&c.

It is only our high and mighty emperor, who alike supports and cherishes those of the
Inner Land, and those from beyond the seas-who looks upon all mankind with equal
benevolence---who, if a source of profit exists anywhere, diffuses it over the whole
world---who, if the tree of evil takes root anywhere, plucks it up for the benefit of all
nations;---who, in a word, hath implanted in his breast that heart (by which beneficent
nature herself) governs the heavens and the earth! You, the queen of your honorable
nation, sit upon a throne occupied through successive generations by predecessors, all of
whom have been styled respectful and obedient. Looking over the public documents
accompanying the tribute sent (by your predecessors) on various occasions, we find the
following: "All the people of my country, arriving at the Central Land for purposes
of trade, have to feel grateful to the great emperor for the most perfect justice, for the
kindest treatment," and other words to that effect. Delighted did we feel that the
kings of your honorable nation so clearly understood the great principles of propriety,
and were so deeply grateful for the heavenly goodness (of our emperor):---therefore, it
was that we of the heavenly dynasty nourished and cherished your people from afar, and
bestowed upon them redoubled proofs of our urbanity and kindness. It is merely from these
circumstances, that your country---deriving immense advantage from its commercial
intercourse with us, which has endured now two hundred years---has become the rich and
flourishing kingdom that it is said to be!

But, during the commercial intercourse which has existed so long, among the numerous
foreign merchants resorting hither, are wheat and tares, good and bad; and of these latter
are some, who, by means of introducing opium by stealth, have seduced our Chinese people,
and caused every province of the land to overflow with that poison. These then know merely
to advantage themselves, they care not about injuring others! This is a principle which
heaven's Providence repugnates; and which mankind conjointly look upon with abhorrence!
Moreover, the great emperor hearing of it, actually quivered with indignation, and
especially dispatched me, the commissioner, to Canton, that in conjunction with the
viceroy and lieut.-governor of the province, means might be taken for its suppression!

Every native of the Inner Land who sells opium, as also all who smoke it, are alike
adjudged to death. Were we then to go back and take up the crimes of the foreigners, who,
by selling it for many years have induced dreadful calamity and robbed us of enormous
wealth, and punish them with equal severity, our laws could not but award to them absolute
annihilation! But, considering that these said foreigners did yet repent of their crime,
and with a sincere heart beg for mercy; that they took 20,283 chests of opium piled up in
their store-ships, and through Elliot, the superintendent of the trade of your said
country, petitioned that they might be delivered up to us, when the same were all utterly
destroyed, of which we, the imperial commissioner and colleagues, made a duly prepared
memorial to his majesty;---considering these circumstances, we have happily received a
fresh proof of the extraordinary goodness of the great emperor, inasmuch as he who
voluntarily comes forward, may yet be deemed a fit subject for mercy, and his crimes be
graciously remitted him. But as for him who again knowingly violates the laws, difficult
indeed will it be thus to go on repeatedly pardoning! He or they shall alike be doomed to
the penalties of the new statute. We presume that you, the sovereign of your honorable
nation, on pouring out your heart before the altar of eternal justice, cannot but command
all foreigners with the deepest respect to reverence our laws! If we only lay clearly
before your eyes, what is profitable and what is destructive, you will then know that the
statutes of the heavenly dynasty cannot but be obeyed with fear and trembling!

We find that your country is distant from us about sixty or seventy thousand miles,
that your foreign ships come hither striving the one with the other for our trade, and for
the simple reason of their strong desire to reap a profit. Now, out of the wealth of our
Inner Land, if we take a part to bestow upon foreigners from afar, it follows, that the
immense wealth which the said foreigners amass, ought properly speaking to be portion of
our own native Chinese people. By what principle of reason then, should these foreigners
send in return a poisonous drug, which involves in destruction those very natives of
China? Without meaning to say that the foreigners harbor such destructive intentions in
their hearts, we yet positively assert that from their inordinate thirst after gain, they
are perfectly careless about the injuries they inflict upon us! And such being the case,
we should like to ask what has become of that conscience which heaven has implanted in the
breasts of all men?

We have heard that in your own country opium is prohibited with the utmost strictness
and severity:---this is a strong proof that you know full well how hurtful it is to
mankind. Since then you do not permit it to injure your own country, you ought not to have
the injurious drug transferred to another country, and above all others, how much less to
the Inner Land! Of the products which China exports to your foreign countries, there is
not one which is not beneficial to mankind in some shape or other. There are those which
serve for food, those which are useful, and those which are calculated for re-sale; but
all are beneficial. Has China (we should like to ask) ever yet sent forth a noxious
article from its soil? Not to speak of our tea and rhubarb, things which your foreign
countries could not exist a single day without, if we of the Central Land were to grudge
you what is beneficial, and not to compassionate your wants, then wherewithal could you
foreigners manage to exist? And further, as regards your woolens, camlets, and longells,
were it not that you get supplied with our native raw silk, you could not get these
manufactured! If China were to grudge you those things which yield a profit, how could you
foreigners scheme after any profit at all? Our other articles of food, such as sugar,
ginger, cinnamon, &c., and our other articles for use, such as silk piece-goods,
chinaware, &c., are all so many necessaries of life to you; how can we reckon up their
number! On the other hand, the things that come from your foreign countries are only
calculated to make presents of, or serve for mere amusement. It is quite the same to us if
we have them, or if we have them not. If then these are of no material consequence to us
of the Inner Land, what difficulty would there be in prohibiting and shutting our market
against them? It is only that our heavenly dynasty most freely permits you to take off her
tea, silk, and other commodities, and convey them for consumption everywhere, without the
slightest stint or grudge, for no other reason, but that where a profit exists, we wish
that it be diffused abroad for the benefit of all the earth!

Your honorable nation takes away the products of our central land, and not only do you
thereby obtain food and support for yourselves, but moreover, by re-selling these products
to other countries you reap a threefold profit. Now if you would only not sell opium, this
threefold profit would be secured to you: how can you possibly consent to forgo it for a
drug that is hurtful to men, and an unbridled craving after gain that seems to know no
bounds! Let us suppose that foreigners came from another country, and brought opium into
England, and seduced the people of your country to smoke it, would not you, the sovereign
of the said country, look upon such a procedure with anger, and in your just indignation
endeavor to get rid of it? Now we have always heard that your highness possesses a most
kind and benevolent heart, surely then you are incapable of doing or causing to be done
unto another, that which you should not wish another to do unto you! We have at the same
time heard that your ships which come to Canton do each and every of them carry a document
granted by your highness' self, on which are written these words "you shall not be
permitted to carry contraband goods;" this shows that the laws of your highness are
in their origin both distinct and severe, and we can only suppose that because the ships
coming here have been very numerous, due attention has not been given to search and
examine; and for this reason it is that we now address you this public document, that you
may clearly know how stern and severe are the laws of the central dynasty, and most
certainly you will cause that they be not again rashly violated!

Moreover, we have heard that in London the metropolis where you dwell, as also in
Scotland, Ireland, and other such places, no opium whatever is produced. It is only in
sundry parts of your colonial kingdom of Hindostan, such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Patna,
Malwa, Benares, Malacca, and other places where the very hills are covered with the opium
plant, where tanks are made for the preparing of the drug; month by month, and year by
year, the volume of the poison increases, its unclean stench ascends upwards, until heaven
itself grows angry, and the very gods thereat get indignant! You, the queen of the said
honorable nation, ought immediately to have the plant in those parts plucked up by the
very root! Cause the land there to be hoed up afresh, sow in its stead the five grains,
and if any man dare again to plant in these grounds a single poppy, visit his crime with
the most severe punishment. By a truly benevolent system of government such as this, will
you indeed reap advantage, and do away with a source of evil. Heaven must support you, and
the gods will crown you with felicity! This will get for yourself the blessing of long
life, and from this will proceed the security and stability of your descendants!

In reference to the foreign merchants who come to this our central land, the food that
they eat, and the dwellings that they abide in, proceed entirely from the goodness of our
heavenly dynasty: the profits which they reap, and the fortunes which they amass, have
their origin only in that portion of benefit which our heavenly dynasty kindly allots
them: and as these pass but little of their time in your country, and the greater part of
their time in our's, it is a generally received maxim of old and of modern times, that we
should conjointly admonish, and clearly make known the punishment that awaits them.

Suppose the subject of another country were to come to England to trade, he would
certainly be required to comply with the laws of England, then how much more does this
apply to us of the celestial empire! Now it is a fixed statute of this empire, that any
native Chinese who sells opium is punishable with death, and even he who merely smokes it,
must not less die. Pause and reflect for a moment: if you foreigners did not bring the
opium hither, where should our Chinese people get it to re-sell? It is you foreigners who
involve our simple natives in the pit of death, and are they alone to be permitted to
escape alive? If so much as one of those deprive one of our people of his life, he must
forfeit his life in requital for that which he has taken: how much more does this apply to
him who by means of opium destroys his fellow-men? Does the havoc which he commits stop
with a single life? Therefore it is that those foreigners who now import opium into the
Central Land are condemned to be beheaded and strangled by the new statute, and this
explains what we said at the beginning about plucking up the tree of evil, wherever it
takes root, for the benefit of all nations.

We further find that during the second month of this present year, the superintendent
of your honorable country, Elliot, viewing the law in relation to the prohibiting of opium
as excessively severe, duly petitioned us, begging for "an extension of the term
already limited, say five months for Hindostan and the different parts of India, and ten
for England, after which they would obey and act in conformity with the new statute,"
and other words to the same effect. Now we, the high commissioner and colleagues, upon
making a duly prepared memorial to the great emperor, have to feel grateful for his
extraordinary goodness, for his redoubled compassion. Any one who within the next year and
a half may by mistake bring opium to this country, if he will but voluntarily come
forward, and deliver up the entire quantity, he shall be absolved from all punishment for
his crime. If, however, the appointed term shall have expired, and there are still persons
who continue to bring it, then such shall be accounted as knowingly violating the laws,
and shall most assuredly be put to death! On no account shall we show mercy or clemency!
This then may be called truly the extreme of benevolence, and the very perfection of
justice!

Our celestial empire rules over ten thousand kingdoms! Most surely do we possess a
measure of godlike majesty which ye cannot fathom! Still we cannot bear to slay or
exterminate without previous warning, and it is for this reason that we now clearly make
known to you the fixed laws of our land. If the foreign merchants of your said honorable
nation desire to continue their commercial intercourse, they then must tremblingly obey
our recorded statutes, they must cut off for ever the source from which the opium flows,
and on no account make an experiment of our laws in their own persons! Let then your
highness punish those of your subjects who may be criminal, do not endeavor to screen or
conceal them, and thus you will secure peace and quietness to your possessions, thus will
you more than ever display a proper sense of respect and obedience, and thus may we
unitedly enjoy the common blessings of peace and happiness. What greater joy! What more
complete felicity than this!

Let your highness immediately, upon the receipt of this communication, inform us
promptly of the state of matters, and of the measure you are pursuing utterly to put a
stop to the opium evil. Please let your reply be speedy. Do not on any account make
excuses or procrastinate. A most important communication.

P. S. We annex an abstract of the new law, now about to be put in force.

"Any foreigner or foreigners bringing opium to the Central Land, with design to
sell the same, the principals shall most assuredly be decapitated, and the accessories
strangled; and all property (found on board the same ship) shall be confiscated. The space
of a year and a half is granted, within the which, if any one bringing opium by mistake,
shall voluntarily step forward and deliver it up, he shall be absolved from all
consequences of his crime."

This said imperial edict was received on the 9th day of the 6th month of the 19th year
of Taoukwang, at which the period of grace begins, and runs on to the 9th day of the
12th month of the 20th year of Taoukwang, when it is completed.

Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by
Prof. Arkenberg.

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